Monthly Archives: June 2016

If you haven’t noticed, we’re moving close to the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day. While the phrase is rampant all the time, this is especially the time to hear, “America is the greatest country in the world.”

Ever stop to think how that sounds to non-Americans? (Of course if you aren’t American, you have). What does it literally mean? It means Americans are better than everyone else. In other words, every other country in the world is inferior to America. It’s an insult to the world.

Do an online search for “Greatest country in the world” and (as of five minutes ago) you’ll see articles either saying America is the greatest or America is not the greatest. They’ll almost all be about America.

America is a superpower. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said America is “probably the only superpower.” But the “land of the free, home of the brave” is consistently not listed as the greatest in personal freedom, in economic freedom, in freedom of the press, in education level, in medical care, or in having law-abiding citizens (instead it has the highest prison population rate in the world).

But America is the greatest country in the world. So is Russia. So is China, and the United Kingdom, and Israel, and Egypt, and Iran and Iraq and every other nation in the world to someone.

If you want to praise America on the 4th of July, by all means do so. But consider saying, “America is the greatest country in the world–to me.”

An opinion of an individual member of The Loveshade Family does not necessarily reflect the view of every member of the family.

As of right now, you may notice there’s almost a year gap between blog posts. Yes, we’re aware of it, and yes, we’re working on it. We had something of a glitch ($%&!#X!) in doing an update. It’s in the process of being fixed, so please bear with us while we work to restore the missing posts.

In the meantime, feel free to check out those classic blog posts below

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Update 2016 07 14 #1: We’re getting more back up. Check below!

Update 2016 07 14 #2: A goof in our supposed fix didn’t allow any new comments on any posts, even the new ones (old ones often disallow comments to avoid spam buildup). We believe we have the problem fixed. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Lizzie Velasquez was born with an extremely rare medical condition that keeps her body from storing fats. In addition to being severely underweight, she is also blind in one eye. She was cyberbullied but stood up for herself. You can too!

Are you beautiful? Believe you are and you are.

People who are hurting want to hurt others. Don’t do it because it won’t make you feel any better.

Lizzie Velasquez, who is blind in one eye and has a condition where her body doesn’t store fat, was cyberbullied. But she stood up to it and has wonderful ideas how you can too. She’s great at TEDxYouth@Austin Be free to be beautiful!